Shoe



M. S. HESS.

SHOE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 20, 1918.

1,354,972, Patented Oct. 5,1920.

UNITED STATES MEYER S. HESS, 0F BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

SHOE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 5, 1920.

Application filed April 20, 1918. Serial No. 229,767.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MEYER S. Hnss, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Baltimore city, in the State of Maryland, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Shoes, of which the following isa specification.

The object of the invention is to provide a shoe construction and methodof producing the same, as applied particularly to welt shoes, by which,even with the use of an inferior grade of leather, for the insole asuperior grade of the product, in matters of strength, durability andfinish, is assured; to provide means for reinforcing or fortifying themain insole rib to which the welt and upper are secured; to providemeans for positively anchoring the marginal edge or feather of theinsole; to provide means for definitely positioning and restraining thefeather of the insole toprevent curling; and to provide means to renderthe sole elements mutually reinforcing while permitting a suiiicientlatitude of movement longitudinallyof the shoe to allow for flexibilityin walking, without producing strains tending to transverselydisarrange, or disturb the described and approved relative positions ofthese or any other elements of the structure.

In the drawing, representing a preferred embodiment of the-invention,.it being understood however that changes in form,proportions and details of construction and arrangement may be resortedto within the scope of the appended claims,

Figure 1 is a transverse sectional view of a shoe embodying the featuresof the invention.

Fig. 2 is a bottom planview showing the insole with the reinforcing webattached but prior to the attaching of the upper end welt and thetrimming of the rib for the reception of the outer sole.

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view of an insole reinforced accordingto the plan shown in Fig. l but showing the same prior to the attachmentof the other parts forming a shoe; and

Fig. A isv a transverse sectional view of another form of reinforcedinsole.

' Essentially the shoe embodying the invention includes the-usualelements, namely the upper 36, the outer sole 38, the insole 30. and thewelt 37, the insole being provided withthe usual marginal rib 31 formedby cutting webs of material from the body of the insole to leave areduced marginal feather 32, and the welt being attached to the insoleby means of a line of stitching 39 which passes through the material ofthe upper, interposed between said welt and rib and holds theconstituent elements of the rib in contact as an anchor for the upperand the outer sole which is attached to the welt by a line of stitchingshown at etl.

Associated with the above noted elements is a reinforcing memberconsisting of a flexible strip 33 which may consist of fabric such ascanvas which extends around the margin of the shoe and is at its edgesor marginal portions permanently and securely anchored to the insole.The attachment of the reinforcing strip is preferably in the mannershown, a line of stitching 3 L being employed and the strip beingcarried around the feather 32. At the opposite marginal edge, thereinforcing strip or web is positively and securely anchoredto theinsole in contact with the lower surface thereof by a line of stitching35 identical with the stitching 34. Thus one marginal edge of thereinforcing strip or web is permanently secured or anchored to the topsurface of the insole and the opposite, marginal edge is secured oranchored positively to the under surface of the insole on anintermediate line of the latter within the space bounded by the insolerib, and intermediately said reinforcing strip or web extends around orembraces the feather of the insole, with whose upper and lower surfacesit is in contact, and extends across or spansthe insole rib 31 so as,primarily, to occupy a position substantially as indicated in Fig. 3wherein the portions of the strip or web on either side of the plane ofthe rib occupy the positions of chords or represent hypotenuses oftriangles whose legs are represented by the side surfaces of the rib andthe plane of the under surface of the primary insole. More or lesstransverse strain or tension may be applied to the reinforcing strip orweb at the time of anchoring its marginal edges respectively to theinsole structure, but under no circumstances should the relation of theparts at this stage in the construction of the shoe be such that thereis insufficient transverse slack in the strip or web to permit theportions thereof at the opposite sides In applying the welt betweenwhich and therib there is interposed the edge of the upper, the weltsecuring stitches are ex tended not only through the welt, upper andrib, as in the ordinary practice, but

' also through both of said side portions of the reinforcing strip orweb, and the tightening of these stitches obviously will draw said sideportions of the strip or web towardthe planes of the side surface of therib, to produce an angular form approximating the angles between thesides of the rib and the plane of the insole, as shown by the dottedlines in Fig. 3, and the effect of this operation will be to place therein forcing strip or web under a more or less severe tension, so thatthe portion between the rib and the inside line of anchoring stitches 35and the portion between said rib and the marginal edge of the insole areplaced under tension so that the rib is reinforced against strains bythe inner portion of the strip or web shown at 33 and against inwardstrain by the portion 'of the strip or web indicated at 38 and thefeather of the insole is positively'anchored or bound by the embracingportion of the strip or web to counteract any tendency of said feather,even after protracted use of the shoe, to curl or turn upward. The ribthus acts as a reinforcing element to the feather edge of the insole,and this relation of reinforcement is maintained. even if, after theparts have been secured as described, the lower edge portion of the rib,with the portion of the strip or web should be removed or cut away, asis common in the construction of shoes of this type, in order to reducethe projection of the rib from the plane of the under surface of theinsole. In other words, the trimming'ofthe rib at its lower edge, afterthe welt has been secured in place by the line of stitching representedat 39. will not affect the described relation of the elements includingthe transversely tensioned condition of the portions of the strip or webwhich extend in opposite directions from the rib toward the marginaledges which are anchored securelyjto the insole structure.

'It has been found in practice that particularly when an inferior gradeof insole leather is used, the attachment of reinforcmg means to theouter surface thereof has been more or less insecure with the resultthat after a time the connection between the parts is destroyed orimpaired with the result that the insole rib is subjected to transversestrains which it is incapable, by reason of the quality of the material,to withstand, and hence there is a resulting disarrangement of theelements of the shoe or a tearing apart of the outer sole and insole orof the and the related parts are bound together under such conditions asto retain them in their original relations and to substantially increasethe durability of the structure.

As a means of rendering the joint between the upper and sole water-proofthe reinforcing strip or web may be coated or saturated with awater-proof material or may be rubberized, but it is even moreimportant, owing to the fact that the strip or web is transverselytensioned and should be maintained permanently under a relatively hightension, that'the strip or web while flexible should be transverselyinelastic so as to avoid any tendency to lateral yield which wouldpermit of the relative 'disarrangement of the parts or the imposition oftransverse strains upon the insole rib. On the other hand, in order thatthe shoe be longitudinally flexible, to permit its bending freely as inwalking, said reinforcing strip or web should be longitudinally elasticto a degree sufficient to permit it to give with the movements of theparts to which it is secured without applying such a strain as wouldtend to break or injure the connections and thus destroy the cooperativerelation which is essential to protracted efficiency.

The construction set forth in Fig. 3 is identical with that shown inFig. 1 with the exception that the reinforcing strip is anchored on theunder edge of the feather by the stitching 40, as illustrated, and isshown completely surrounding the rib, as it appears prior to thetrimming of the rib.

The modified structure of insole 42 shown in Fig. 4 is provided with areinforcing web 43 which completely surrounds its body portion, marginalrib and feather, practically, forming an envelop for the insole. Thefree edges of this web are joined together and connected to the insoleby a line of stitching 45 which extends completely through the insole,the web on top of the insole, and the connecting edges of the web belowthe insole. It will be observed that the connecting edges of the weboverlap. This is thought to be preferable to abutting edges, althoughabutting edges can be effectively joined together and secured to theinsole by a form of stitch commonly known as the surgical stitch. 7

Since both the insole shown-in Fig. 3 and that shown in Fig. 4 areillustrated as they ing accomplished when the uppers and welts are sewedon, as has been clearly set forth hereinbefore.

It is obvious from the foregoing description that the application of thereinforcing member in the construction of the shoe can be accomplishedwithout substantially increasing the operations of building the shoe,and hence without adding appreciably to the cost of manufacture thereof.

What is claimed is 1. A shoe construction embodying an'insole having amarginal rib, a welt and a line of stitching connecting the welt to therib, and a reinforcing strip marginally anchored on either side of andspanning said rib, and transversely tensioned by said line of stitching.

2. A shoe having an insole provided with a marginal rib and welt, aflexible reinforcing strip extending from the rib around the feather tothe upper side of the insole and a connection between said rib and saidwelt transversely tensioning said reinforcing strip.

3. A shoe having an insole provided with a marginal rib, a flexiblereinforcing strip marginally anchored on opposite sides of the plane ofthe rib, and stitching attaching the strip to the rib and maintainingthe strip under tension transversely of the rib.

4:. A shoe having an insole provided with a marginal rib, a flexiblereinforcing strip marginally anchored on opposite sides of the plane ofthe rib and intermediately spanning the latter, and stitchingintermediately attaching the strip to the rib and maintaining the formerunder tension on opposite sides of the latter.

5. A welt shoe having an insole, provided with a marginal rib, and areinforcement consisting of a flexible, transversely tensioned stripmarginally stitched to said insole in spanning relation with said riband intermediately secured to the rib by a line of stitchingtransversely engaging the latter.

6. A shoeconstruction embodying an insole having a. marginal rib, a weltand a line of stitching connecting the welt to the rib, and areinforcing strip marginally anchored on either side of and spanningsaid rib, and transversely tensioned on both sides of the rib by saidline of stitching.

' In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

MEYER S. HESS.

